"There ain't but two things in music: good and bad. Now if it sounds good, you don't worry what it is. You're just gonna enjoy it." -- Louis Armstrong

Sunday, January 22, 2012

WHAT A DIFF'RENCE A DAY MAKES - Dinah Washington

YEAR: 1959

LABEL: Mercury/Verve

TRACK LISTING: I Remember You, I Thought About You, That's All There Is To That, I Won't Cry Anymore, I'm Thru With Love, Cry Me A River, What A Diff'rence A Day Made, Nothing in the World, Manhattan, Time After Time, It's Magic, A Sunday Kind of Love

BONUS TRACKS: Time After Time (First Version), Come On Home, It Could Happen To You, Studio Dialogue

IMPRESSIONS: Dinah Washington is on my Mount Rushmore of vocalists along with Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. "Here's the New Dinah Washington!" That's what the original 1959 liner notes to this album said. And that's kinda true since this is definitely more of a pop album and it resulted in tons of radio play as well as a Grammy for the NOT title track -- you'll notice the song is called "What A Diff'rence A Day Made" while the album title uses the word "Makes". Any road, this album features rather sweet strings a la the albums Nat King Cole or Ray Charles would've been turning out. However, Dinah's "tart tone" (as nicely referred to by itunes concerning her voice) manages to cut through the slightly saccharine strings and maintain the singing quality and emotional truth for which Dinah was renowned. Along with the epoch-making Grammy winning song, Dinah's "I Remember You" is probably my favourite rendition by ANYBODY of that standard. Another really nice touch from the 2000 Verve extended cd release, the final track on the cd features studio dialogue which ends just before the first track "I Remember You" begins; so if you set up your cd player so that the album starts over with track one when it reaches the end of the cd, you get a seemless segue right back into the album. Totally circular, babe!

MY FAVOURITE TRACKS: I Remember You, I Thought About You, That's All There Is To That, I Won't Cry Anymore, What A Diff'rence A Day Made, Manhattan, Time After Time, A Sunday Kind of Love, Time After Time (First Version), Come On Home, It Could Happen To You, Studio Dialogue

FACT SHEET: WHAT A DIFF'RENCE A DAY MAKES is Dinah Washington's 14th album. The album was arranged by Belford Henricks. The song "What A Diff'rence A Day Made" won the 1960 Grammy Award for Best Rhythm & Blues Recording.

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MISSION STATEMENT

Here in the Dark Forest we will reach under a pile of leaves (almost) every day and pull out a favourite album to listen to. These will not be reviews per se but will feature facts, track lists and personal impressions on much-loved albums.

I strongly hope that you will leave comments relating your personal impressions and experiences related to the albums featured here. The only thing better than talking about music is listening to the music itself and I'd love to hear how this music affects you as well. So please let's hear from you.

ONE SMALL NOTE ON THE TERM "ALBUM"

This is, in fact, the correct term. An "album" does not mean a vinyl record; that term would be "record" or "LP". The term "album" means "an album of songs" in the same way as a "photo album" is "an album of photos". The definition of the word "album" means a collection of songs regardless of the medium on which it is presented. An album can be on vinyl, tape, compact disc or computer file but still remains an "album". Originally the term "album" came from the days of 78 rpm records: several records would be packaged together inside a book-shaped "album" with individual sleeves where you would slide out each record to play. With the advent of 33 1/3 rpm records (the first ever LP being Frank Sinatra's IN THE WEE SMALL HOURS) all the songs from the 78 rpm package were grouped together on one 33 1/3rd rpm LP which continued to use the word "album" even after this first change in format. That is why this blog will use that term.